Spring and a Young Man’s Dreams

Spring and a Young Man’s Dreams

Ah, spring is upon us, that is what the weather people tell us. However I am not so sure when I awaken to temperatures in the low 30’s with sleet and snow pelleting the area. The weather can be so unpredictable that I am amazed the meteorologists even attempt to give an extended forecast.

Years ago, actually 1971, I visited my brother in Winston Salem, North Carolina.  As many of you who have read my blogs or my book, If The Shoe Fits Wear It, The Life and Times of a Shoe Salesman, know that in my younger days I sold shoes. 

An honorable profession in the day especially if you were a young teenage boy. You got to work in a climate controlled setting, dress in a suit and tie, and got to meet a lot of young ladies because that was the past time, shopping for shoes.

I left college at the end of winter quarter. Back then things were simple, you had fall, winter, spring, and summer quarter. 

I traveled to North Carolina to work for my brother for the Easter season. Easter back then was the busiest time of the year for dressing up. Shoes, clothes, even hats was the big thing and Americans spent lots of money to show off their new spring ensemble on Easter Sunday morning.

Mickey, as we affectionately called him, asked me to come help so I less than reluctantly agreed to do so. 

I never really liked school. I felt I could be doing a lot more good with my time doing what I  really wanted to do and that was work toward opening my own retail shoe store. I got the call and made my way to Winston Salem for a break, some fun and to assess my future as a college student.

Mickey had taken a job managing two retail shoe outlets in dress shops for a man he had previously worked for and to a young eighteen year old boy that looked exciting. 

Not only was this a break from the hum drum time of sitting in a classroom, but it was spring, it was an opportunity for a young man to be out on his own, it was an opportunity to plan my future. This trip to North Carolina did set the stage for my future as I tell the story in my book.

On the way up I stopped in Salisbury to see a man who I had previously worked for.  

As the pattern went, most of the managers at Butler Shoes eventually branched out and went into business for themselves. As I mentioned, selling shoes in the 1960s and 1970s was an honorable and good profession.

During lunch, he alerted me to the opportunity of an Assistant Mangers position in Greensboro that was available and as luck would have it the Regional Manager just happened to be in town that day.

At the age of eighteen, not a fan of college, the opportunity to be on my own in a new area, how do you think I reacted? After meeting with him, I advised I would let him know and made my way north to work with my brother.

Life has funny way of coming together when you least expect things to happen. That day in Salisbury paved the way for the best education a boy or man could get. About fifteen months later, Mickey and I opened the first of two ladies shoe stores back in Macon, Georgia.

What does this have to do with the weather you ask, well read on.

I spent one month in Winston Salem working for my brother and it was one of the best times of my life. I stayed with him, his wife, and small daughter, I think his wife was ready for me to leave at the end of that month, but it was fun.

The Saturday before Easter that year, Palm Saturday, the second busiest day of the year for shoe and apparel sales, it snowed. Not just a dusting or flurries, but actual snow and this middle Georgia boy had never seen that much snow ever.

Things came to a stand still, shops closed, people went home and we went and played in the snow. We took card board boxes, broke them down and slid down hills till we were practically frozen. What a day and a time to be alive, I thought. Don’t ever miss the opportunity to be young and energetic and enjoy yourself no matter how old you are.

That weekend ended and the snow melted. The next weekend, Easter weekend, the weather was the most beautiful spring weather one can imagine. The flowers were blooming, people were shopping for their Easter fashions and life was still good.

Each year at spring I reminisce about how a spring in my early youth could change the path of my life forever. 

I love the way the days look, the colorful trees as they awaken to a new season, the colorful clothing on the racks in the stores, and the happy looks on peoples faces as they realize they are able once again to go outdoors and frolic.

As I sit in my office and stare out the big window that I love, I am seeing trees beginning to awaken and the pink and white colors of the blooms as they open and greet the day. 

In the distance is a mountain peak and the snow adorns the top, but I know within a few weeks, that will give way to luscious colors of red, pink, white, purple and green.

Yes, springtime is upon and we can see the beauty of God’s creation once more giving us hope of life.

I think I will go now and re-read my book and live those wonderful experiences once more. 

Won’t you join me 

“Life Happens”